New York’s Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is under fire for pledging to end enforcement of misdemeanor crimes—a move critics warn would fuel lawlessness.
The Democratic Socialist has built his campaign around the DSA platform, which casts prisons and police as “instruments of class war” to be “diminished and abolished,” writes The New York Post. On the trail, Mamdani argues police should focus on “serious crimes” rather than what he calls “non-serious” offenses. “Right now we’re relying on them to deal with the failures of our social safety net,” he said in a recent video, pairing his call with support for legalizing prostitution and questioning the need for prisons.
Misdemeanors in New York include shoplifting under $1,000, drug possession, some assaults, and DWI—offenses punishable by up to a year in jail. To critics, Mamdani’s plan erases basic safeguards. “They’re driving the city into a hole that’s never going to recover,” said Greenwich Village resident Susan Ginsburg, who already sees her neighborhood as a “lawless drug den.”
Mamdani once backed defunding the police, later insisting he would maintain NYPD staffing but redirect officers to “serious” crime. Few are persuaded. Manhattan Institute fellow Rafael Mangual called his pivot hollow: “I don’t buy for a second that he is moderated on any of these policing questions.”
The candidate has even challenged the concept of violent crime itself, once declaring: “Violence is an artificial construction.” That alarms residents like Chelsea’s Alexander Kaplan: “We’re already suffering from terrible crime. This is going to make it a thousand times worse.”
Opponents are seizing the issue. Republican Curtis Sliwa called the plan an “EZ-Pass for criminals” that would plunge the city into “chaos and disorder.” And while a mayor cannot rewrite state law, Mamdani would shape NYPD priorities and prosecutorial pressure—echoing the early controversies surrounding Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.
Liberals have been excited by Mandami, and many Democrats view him as the future of the party.
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